It is finished: Marcie Walker [Retrieve Lament 2019]
Jesus gave us a litany of last words as a Sufferer; we refer to them as the Seven Last Words of Christ. The deathbed words of the Suffering Servant provide a framework for the stories of lament we share here this Holy Week.
I count it a high privilege to know each one of these writers. Their lives walk the path of celebration and also suffering -- illness, relational disillusionment, anxiety, joblessness, the death of loved ones, and the death of dearly-held dreams. Their stories have helped form me in my understanding of suffering and I believe they could also encourage you too.
I haven’t met today’s guest in real life (yet), but I’ve been following her online and respect her deeply. Marcie (Black Coffee with White Friends) approaches theology, history, lament, protest, and her own story with an exquisite attention to beauty, wisdom, and connection. Her prose moves me, and the artifacts she curates accomplish a kind of prophetic work similar to the affect of poetry. In additions to adding beauty to my week, Marcie’s work has been instrumental in helping me to recognize and repent of the places I’ve compromised with systemic prejudice in my own heart. I’m grateful to Marcie for sharing some of her story here with us on this Good Friday.
Would you read Marcie’s story with me, and listen with an open heart for any words Christ might be speaking to you?
Greta Leśko
Heaven and Earth were finished, down to the very last detail. Genesis 2:1
When Jesus received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And, He bowed His head and voluntarily gave up His spirit. John 19:30
It Is Finished.
By Marcie Walker, Black Coffee with White Friends
When my mother was sentenced to serve 8-25 years in prison on the charge of involuntary manslaughter, we all said, “This is it,” which in our hearts translated to, “So, this is how it all ends.” She was nearly 60 and all of us, her children, were grown but still asking ourselves,”What kind of woman is this? Troubles ride on the wind and land at her feet.”
I can’t remember a time when my mother wasn’t a deeply disturbed woman. I can remember throughout my childhood more of her absences due to her extended stays in various mental care facilities than I can remember her presence at birthdays and school meetings, recitals and assemblies.
Every time I read scriptures that capture the disciples constant state of perplexed wonder, questioning if Jesus was indeed who He claimed He was, I am entirely sympathetic to their longing to simply know once and for all: Are you the One who was sent?
This is exactly how it felt to be my mother’s daughter. Who was this mother? Like Thomas, so many times I wanted to straight up explain to her, “Woman, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?” (John 14:5)
Reading ancient and sacred things often leaves us feeling a bit too highly of our own intellect. We wonder, “How could they not know that Jesus was obviously The Messiah? He walked on water!!! He changed the water to wine!” We forget that we can only be so cocksure because each of these doubting disciples left us their stories.
Besides, don’t we see miracles every day and still struggle to believe? We carry time machines in our pockets and have cups of coffee while suspended in the sky—but we scoff at the very idea of a God who can see us, hear us, and is very much a part of all of us.
I had a black mother who gave birth to five perfectly healthy babies and lived to tell the tale. Given the disproportionately high maternal mortality rate of black American women that still plagues us today, I am nothing short of a miracle. My daughter is a miracle. Therefore, it shouldn’t be hard at all to believe that Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross given the extraordinarily high rate of crucifixions in His day. However, when I read that He cried out from the cross, “It is finished,” do I believe Him? Is this it? Is this how it all ends? What kind of man is this?
John, the one Jesus loved, tells us: In the beginning, before all time, was the Word, Christ. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was continually existing in the beginning, co-eternally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him. Without Him nothing made came into being. In Him was life and the power to bestow life, and the life was the Light of all. This Light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it. So it could not overpower it, or change it, or swallow it whole. It could not put the Light out.
For six days, God spoke the Word and the Spirit moved:
And there was Light.
Then there was Sky…
then Dry Land,
then Sun, Moon and Stars,
then Fish and Flight,
and then Beasts and People.
Until finally, “God looked at all of this creation, and proclaimed that this was good, very good. On the seventh day, God finished all the work of creation, and so on that day, God rested.” (Genesis 1:31; 2:2). Our kingdom here on earth is made.
As to the beginning of this kingdom right here and now, Jesus sets into motion His eternal Kingdom in heaven:
First, He comes as the Light of the World.
Then the Sky opens to speak, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.”
Then He tames the desert land…
and, His face shines as bright as the sun,
and He multiplies the fish,
Then He rides an ass and a colt into His Kingdom
And laments His people.
Until finally, “It is finished!” And He bows His head, voluntarily surrendering His spirit to rest for three days.
At my mother’s trial, when the gavel struck, we heard, “It’s finished. Done.” We knew this would be the finality of my mother’s arduous existence. “It’s finished,” we said. “It’s all over.”
Little did we know that her story was only beginning. From a cell, much the size of a tomb, our mother would earn a GED and an Associate’s Degree and miraculously get remarried and released from prison 8 years later. She would be back home for the births of her first great-grandchildren. More miracles.
And little did Thomas or any of the disciples know that when all seemed finished, it would only be the beginning of finally understanding just who is this man who calms the storms, walks on water, makes the blind to see, who speaks to demons with authority, who leaves the tomb to meet them along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and who did so many more things that if they were all written down, each of them, one by one, the whole world would not be big enough to hold such a library of books. (John 21:25)
My Lord and My God,
You cried, “Telelestai, it is finished! It is complete! It is fulfilled and continues to be fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven!” You are the One who was sent and the One who will come again.
This I believe.
Selah.
Pray:
“Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
Marcie Alvis-Walker is the writer behind Black Coffee with White Friends, a blog that chronicles her experiences as a black woman navigating white-dominant spaces. Through the use of memoir, letters, and devotionals, she hopes to narrate the legacy of our life and times today,mostly for her daughter but also for future generations.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackcoffeewithwhitefriends/?hl=en
Blog: blackcoffeewithwhitefriends.com
“Once, ritual lament would have been chanted; women would have been paid to beat their breasts and howl for you all night, when all is silent. / Where can we find such customs now? So many have long since disappeared or been disowned. /
That’s what you had to come for: to retrieve the lament that we omitted.”
(See all of the Retrieve Lament stories from this year here.)